The Care Quality Commission

Archived: Rivington Street

81 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3AY

Provided and run by:
Health Bridge Limited

All Inspections

During a check to make sure that the improvements required had been made

Our inspection of 16 April 2012 found the provider did not have a clear safeguarding policy or procedure for staff to follow in the event that they had concerns about possible abuse. The provider provided evidence to demonstrate that they had developed their safeguarding procedure. We found that this was clear and included important information for staff on how to recognise abuse and what to do if they had concerns about possible abuse.

16 April 2012

During a routine inspection

Health Bridge Limited registered with the Care Quality Commission as a new provider in January 2011. The number of people using its online services in the UK has increased gradually since then. Currently around 200-300 people living in the UK access its services every month.

We were told that the most common problems people experienced were technical problems accessing the online service and these could usually resolved by email or telephone. The service had not received any formal complaints since it started operating.

We reviewed the information provided to people using the websites. There was clear information about the treatment, side effects of medicines and the costs of treatment. The website provided information in advance of the decision to proceed with treatment.The system had been designed to identify and alert doctors to people using the service for whom the treatment was unsuitable.

Doctors are available to provide online consultation and prescriptions between 8:30am and 6:00pm on weekdays. The service published its response times for treatment. The manager and doctor we spoke to said the staffing levels were sufficient to achieve the stated response times.

The service had not yet undertaken a formal survey of people using the service for their views and feedback although this was in development at the time of the inspection. Informal feedback we saw during the inspection included some positive comments about the service and the helpfulness of doctors' response to questions.